“Apple’s planting its flag in Santa Clara in a big way for the first time as the technology giant continues its shopping spree for new offices, agreeing to occupy a site where Apple could locate 1,200 or more workers,” George Avalos reports for The Oakland Tribune.

“Cupertino-based Apple has struck a deal with developer Peery Arrillaga for a custom-tailored two-building campus that is under construction on the north side of Stevens Creek Boulevard in Santa Clara a short distance from the Cupertino city limits,” Avalos reports. “Multiple sources with direct knowledge of the transaction told this newspaper that Apple has leased nearly 296,000 square feet from Peery Arrillaga in a deal that included demolition of existing buildings.”

Avalos reports, “The two new structures will both be six-story office buildings, said Ruth Shikada, Santa Clara’s economic development officer… One of the big questions is whether the buildings Apple is leasing outside of Cupertino will be temporary workplaces for employees displaced while the company constructs its huge, circular-shaped ‘spaceship’ headquarters in Cupertino. Apple hopes to locate 14,000 employees at that site, up from estimates of 12,000 workers in June of last year. The headquarters, initially scheduled for completion in 2015, is now slated to open in mid-2016.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers "Brawndo Drinker" and "David E." for the heads up.]